Today, we are honored to announce a luminary Keynote Speaker: Mitch Kapor.

Mitch Kapor, quite simply, is a "godfather" of Silicon Valley, and has been a pioneer in personal computing and information technology for more than 30 years.

He is widely known as the Founder of Lotus Development Corporation, and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the “killer application” which made the personal computer ubiquitous in the business world in the 1980s. In addition, Mitch was the Founding Investor in UUNET, the first commercial Internet Service Provider; a Co-Founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which protects freedom and privacy on the Internet; a Founding Investor in Real Networks, the first company to offer streaming media over the Internet; a Founding Chair of the Mozilla Foundation, maker of the open source web browser Firefox; and a Founding Investor and Chair in Linden Research, the creator of the first successful virtual world, Second Life.

Currently, Mitch is a Partner at Kapor Capital, which invests in seed stage tech startups that generate both economic returns and positive social impact, and a Co-Chair at the Kapor Center for Social Impact, whose mission is to provide educational access for all Americans, diversify the tech industry, and support startup companies that have a positive social impact.

At the Founder Showcase, Mitch will talk about building technology companies that generate both economic value AND positive social impact.

Mitch is just one of many planned speakers for the 15th Founder Showcase, and we will be announcing several more in coming weeks.

Now in its 15th edition, the Founder Showcase is a bi-annual seed-startup event that gathers over 400 startup investors, founders, and press in Silicon Valley to hear from startup experts, and see promising seed-stage companies. In addition to getting the best speakers, we pride ourselves on showcasing the best early-stage companies before anyone else (pun intended). Past contestants have raised over $130 million, and we have showcased companies like Udemy, Relay Rides, Thumbtack, and Kaggle in their infancy. To see the list of all notable companies that have presented, see our Founder Showcase Hall of Fame here.